Just a week ago, Twitter reactivated the distribution of bluechecks, the verification badges that apparently are the most appreciated by users of the social network. However, the ‘grace measure’ has not lasted for a long time, which for the moment has been collapsed by the number of requests received.
In short, Twitter has apologized for it, but has decided pause the new applications once more, ignoring all the ones they receive from now on even, it is assumed, to be able to process those already received. But will they continue to offer verification, as they say, has died of success?
There is nothing to suggest that the distribution of Twitter verification badges will not be reactivated, but as they remember in Engadget, the last pause they made lasted four years: the four years that the Trump Administration lasted “after verifying a real Nazi », They point out.
The problem with Twitter verification badges, however, lay more in the meaning they convey than anything else. That “Nazi” (a pro-Trump court conspirator, accused of white supremacist and other miseries) they verified was the evidence of it.
As explained by the social network itself at that time, the problem with verification badges is that many people did not understand them for what they were, a verification stamp of the person or organization behind an account, but rather as “an endorsement or indicator of importance” by Twitter. And who says ‘people’, says so-called specialized journalists.
Considering what has been seen after the latest revival, the landscape does not seem to have changed much when the masses rush to request a badge that in many cases they will not need, unless satisfying vanity is considered a necessity. And since we talk about the social network of hate, the most polarized discussion platform on the Internet …
In fact, that “Nazi” who set off alarms and blocked Twitter’s verification request system had his badge removed, but not his account, which is still open and active. Four years ago it was understood that the verification of Twitter was a medal of trust that was given to the guy; How would it be understood now?
Thus, it seems that Twitter has other sensitive issues to deal with, in addition to the enormous interest aroused by the icon of yore; and it seems that they had assimilated it, because even when it was intended to expand it in the future, the first groups to be able to request the verification badge were well defined, although a bit extended.
Specifically, these groups included “governments, companies, brands and organizations, news organizations and journalists, entertainment, sports and games, activists, organizers and other influencers.” Or what is the same, very restricted categories and others in which a lot of everything fits.
And nothing better than to mention again the “Nazi” with whom this mess originated, whose Twitter profile describes himself as “a defender of civil rights and a journalist. Freedom of expression and due process should not be obsolete concepts.
